Blinken to meet Israeli PM as fears of escalation rise
Top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken was set to meet Israeli leaders Tuesday as part of efforts to contain the war in Gaza, a day after strikes in Syria and Lebanon killed high-profile members of Hamas and its ally Hezbollah.
The visit comes as the Israeli military said its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip was shifting into a new phase involving more targeted operations in the territory's centre and south.
- Crisis visit -
The repeated strikes in Lebanon and Syria, attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq, and a campaign against shipping in the Red Sea by Yemeni rebels sympathetic to Hamas have all contributed to fears the Middle East could be dragged into all-out war.
In a bid to stave off that possibility, Blinken touched down in Tel Aviv late Monday after stops in six other countries in his fourth crisis visit to the Middle East since the war began.
The secretary of state was scheduled to meet on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials, as well as war cabinet member and leading opposition figure Benny Gantz.
The war has displaced most of Gaza's population, according to the United Nations, and left civilians at risk of famine and disease, the WHO says.
With only minimal aid entering the besieged territory, Israeli rights group B'Tselem on Monday said "everyone in Gaza is going hungry" as "direct results of Israel's declared policy".
It was joined by the U.S.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which condemned in a statement Washington's support of the "far-right Israeli government's declared policy of starvation".
The United States has said Blinken will press Israel on its compliance with international humanitarian law and ask for "immediate measures" to boost aid to Gaza.
Source: Agence France Presse
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